Original subtitles

Good evening, ladies, and welcome,

my name is Read Scot I'll be your host.

But, before we get any further right now,

I want to set the rules straight.

There aren't any.

[Read Scott] When I met the police at Blackpool,

and they first told me that there was

a murder attempt out for me.

How would you like to come back with me

- for a little bareback ridin'? - [audience cheering]

I couldn't believe it was real.

I just couldn't believe that somebody

would do that to me.

But once it sunk in,

this is serious.

Somebody is trying to kill me.

How many of you ladies think you can go for something like that right now, tonight?

With the men of Adonis?

Fear kicks in.

I get back to the flat.

Move a chair in front of the door,

found the biggest knife in my kitchen,

put it right next to the bed.

[shower running]

I went to shower and get ready for bed

and try to get some sleep.

And all of a sudden...

the lights went out.

It was dark.

I had no clothes,

and I was just frozen solid.

I couldn't move.

And I thought this is it.

This is it.

I'm gonna die today.

Someone was trying to kill me and I didn't know why.

[owl hooting]

[Strawberry] I was a mail right in 1991.

Worked outside construction.

Putting the machinery and plants.

My job took me all over the United States,

and some other countries even.

But I was on a job in LA.

When I met Colon.

Ray Colon.

And we got to be good friends.

We drank beers together, just hung out.

Ray was a likable guy.

Yeah, you know, he used to tell a lot of stories.

[indistinct chatter]

He told me one time, he had set fire to a club

or something like that.

Well I thought that was BS, I never took it serious.

But as time progressed,

I realized this guy was involved in some bad things.

One night I'm hanging out with Ray,

and he said I got a job for you.

What?

Well, he told me these dancers are appearing

in Blackpool, England,

and he wanted me to fly there.

Catch these guys, where there's a lot of people around.

Stick 'em with a needle.

With this poison...

and then I was supposed to just ease out

of the crowd, come home, collect $25,000

and live happily ever after.

I'm going, "What are you, kidding me?"

He said you see these needles, in there's cyanide.

He said we're gonna go kill one of these guys,

just to put the fear of God in 'em.

Oh, I thought he was joking at first,

but I realized, this guy was dead serious.

That's when I knew I was in deep shit.

I was afraid maybe he might do something to me.

You know I might have got stuck with the cyanide.

Because I know too much.

So I thought, oh, I gotta go along with this,

till I can get free of him.

So I tell Ray, "No problem. We're gonna do this."

On the car ride to the airport.

I knew my only way out was to get away from him

and get to the authorities.

[indistinct announcement on p.a.]

When we got there, he parked.

I say, "You don't have to come in, Ray."

Oh, yeah, I'll see ya. I'll...

So I was stuck.

I thought, "Well, I got to go." You know.

Once I landed in London.

I went in the restroom.

And I threw the cyanide and needles in the trash can.

And the first thing I thought about was going

to the English police.

Then I stopped and I thought, "Are they gonna believe this?"

They're not gonna believe this.

So, I knew what I had to do and I knew where I had to go.

I didn't want to go back to L.A.

That's too close to Ray,

so I figured my only salvation is the FBI.

That's why I chose Las Vegas, because I knew where

the office was and everything.

[Scott] In July of 1991, this cooperating witness

who we'll call Strawberry

walked into the FBI office in Las Vegas

and advise the duty agent that he had been hired

by an individual in Los Angeles

to travel to London, England, to kill two members

of this dance group known as Adonis.

We are going to take you places you have never been.

We are going to show you things you have never seen.

[Scott] The plan was to inject the fatal dose of cyanide

into these two individuals.

Well, ladies, those are the men of Adonis.

[Scott] Even though the story may have sounded crazy

on the outset.

One thing you learn as an FBI agent

is you never underestimate anyone or anything.

[Strawberry] They want some kind of proof.

So that's when they asked me to contact Ray

on the phone while they were taping it

and get him to, I guess admit that he was involved in this.

[phone dialing]

I was nervous.

I figured you know if he knew I ratted him out over there.

- [line ringing on recording] - He would try to get even, I'm sure.

[line ringing]

- [Ray] Hello. - [Strawberry] Hey, Ray.

- [Ray] Yeah. - Are you sure that goddamn stuff

is gonna work, it's pretty rad, buddy.

- [Ray] Yeah, it'll work. - [Strawberry] Yeah, okay.

Okay, I hope this shit will kill 'em right away

'cause, man, I don't want to fuck with this shit.

[Ray] I was thinking, you know.

[Strawberry] Yeah?

[Ray] You could maybe with, with a hammer or something,

- you know, something nice and fast. - [laughs] Ray.

[Ray] You know what I mean? I mean, that'll...

[Strawberry] Oh, yeah. Yeah, I know what you're saying.

[Ray] With something real hard on the, you know what,

and then go for the neck.

- [Strawberry] Yeah, right. - [Ray] That's what I would do

Ray just, man, he gobbled it right up.

And he was so foolish.

[Strawberry on recording] Now...

What do you say that MC's...

[Scott] What we wound up getting on tape

was more than enough in our opinion

that this wasn't just some wild story

that somebody came in off the street,

told to some agent in Las Vegas.

[Strawberry] I'll call you after it's done.

[Scott] This was really a murder for hire conspiracy

that spanned two continents.

Strawberry did a good job on the tapes,

getting Colon to elicit this information,

and whether or not Strawberry intended to kill

these two individuals is open for discussion.

My opinion is that he probably got cold feet,

and Strawberry wanted to make sure

that he wasn't going to go down for this conspiracy as well.

But, it was our responsibility and our duty

to protect Strawberry,

not only for his own personal safety,

but we may need him as a witness in a trial later on.

[Strawberry] The guy said, "What do you think about going on

witness relocation?"

I wanted to get moving somewhere else where I was safe.

So I said, "No problem. Let's go."

[Scott] Once Strawberry was in agreement doing this,

members of the squad went out and conducted a search warrant

at Colon's residence.

During the search, one of the agents found

kind of a canvas bag with a poison symbol on it.

Inside the bag was a powder jar of cyanide.

Colon was arrested by the FBI,

and his bond is set at $100,000,

which he doesn't have the means to make that bond,

so he stays in the detention center.

[announcer] Okay, ladies. This, the show,

England preferred over Chippendales.

[Read] I was still touring with Adonis,

but I couldn't sleep.

They're here, Adonis, the men of Hollywood.

It just got really crazy for a while,

until all of a sudden,

a newspaper article breaks in the US,

and we find out they catch the two guys,

so the two hitmen were apprehended.

They were going to kill me for 25 grand.

After you read some of that stuff.

You felt worthless to be eliminated...

that easily.

That alone, I mean, you know, I'm overseas

and I'm sending videotapes to my son,

telling him daddy misses you.

I'll be home soon,

reading him child's books,

so he wouldn't forget my voice while I'm gone,

and I got somebody that wants to take me out

'cause I'm not worth anything.

[laughs]

It's not right.

[Scott] We received a call from a former federal prosecutor.

He tells us that he had been hired by Ray Colon,

and that Colon wanted to cooperate.

So my partner Stefanak and I,

we sat down and we pretty much give Ray Colon the floor

and say, "Okay, tell us what you know."

- [audience cheering] - [speaking indistinctly]

[Scott] Colon admitted his involvement in the murder for hire plot

to kill the two members of the Adonis dance group.

And he admitted he had tried to burn down nightclubs

in Los Angeles in 1984.

And then, where the story really takes a turn,

is he tells us in 1987,

with the assistance of somebody else,

that he had murdered an individual

by the name of Nick DeNoia in New York City.

[man on video] We men have had our sensual entertainment on stage,

for the last 10,000 years,

you women are finally saying we'll have it now.

He tells us that the person who had him do all this,

the person who hired him for all this...

was Steve Banerjee, the owner of Chippendales.

[David Scheper] I was sitting at my desk and I was working on a case.

When I was paid a visit by a couple of FBI agents,

knocking on the door saying essentially,

"Have we got an investigation for you."

Andy Stefanak started at the FBI in the late 1960s

and had done just about everything,

knew just about every move from many years of experience.

And the other one named Scott Garriola

was comparatively, a pup,

but he had obvious drive, obvious intelligence,

obvious resourcefulness.

[Scott] Any agent, whether you're straight out of the academy

or whether you're a 25 year agent.

This is kind of case you want to get involved in.

Not only do we have this conspiracy to kill people over in London.

But we have a murder which actually occurred

in New York in 1987.

We have two arsons we have to investigate.

And this conspiracy extended from the mid '70s

all the way up until the time we're sitting here, from 1991.

[David] I instantly concluded, this can't possibly

be real life.

This is the movies.

If true, Steve Banerjee rested

an internationally famous business empire,

largely on a willingness to kill and burn.

[inaudible]

But the first thing that came to my mind was,

this is going to be trying to grab a tiger by the tail,

because we have a, by definition, dirty informant.

And if his tale is to be proven in court.

There's a lot of work, we're going to have to do.

Let's get to work.

[Scott] It's our job to try and do as much as possible

to verify everything Ray was telling us is true.

So we corroborated as much as we could about the arsons,

and sure enough, when we got the fire department report

and the Sheriff's Department report.

Right down the line, it corroborated everything

Colon had told us.

We interviewed Colon a few more times

and he describes the Nick De Noia murder

in pretty great detail.

Colon tells us that in 1987,

he winds up contacting an individual he knows

as Louie,

and tells him that he wants to use him to kill somebody

in New York,

and that he's going to pay him $25,000.

Colon and Louie fly to New York.

Louie takes the elevator up to the 15th floor,

walks into the inner office where De Noia is seated

at his desk working,

and Louie pulls the gun out...

and he shoots him.

So now we needed to corroborate what he was telling us about

the murder that occurred in New York.

[Mike Geddes] I was sitting at my desk and I get a telephone call

that the FBI is downstairs.

So I get introduced to a Special Agent Scott Garriola

and his partner, Andy Stefanak.

He said, "Well, listen, I'd like to ask you a question.

Are you assigned to the Nick De Noia Chippendales homicide?

I said, "Yes, I am."

And he said, "Look, we think we're going to be able

to help you solve this case."

[Scott] We went over his case file,

and his murder book on this homicide.

And we come to find out everything that Ray

had told us about the doing of a murder was matching up

with their witness statements.

So, at this point in the investigation.

We have two things to figure out.

One, who this person, Louie is,

the guy who pulled the trigger and actually killed DeNoia,

and number two was to find out if Banerjee was at

the origins of these plots.

How are we going to prove that?

[David] As a prosecutor, the highest, most precious mettle

of evidence is audio and visual admission

of the wrongdoing, not in a confession,

because somebody could say that was coerced,

but rather in an unguarded moment with someone,

the speaker believes to be a friend.

[Scott] So what we did was we started out this Louie,

in order to get Louie talking about this murder

that occurred four years ago.

Through our investigation, we were able to determine

that Louie's real name was Gilberto Lopez Rivera.

But Louie Rivera is locked up in a state prison in California

on a narcotics charge.

So we wire Ray up with this recording device

at the FBI office in L.A., and drive to the state prison.

In order to accomplish a face to face meeting with Rivera.

It would seem suspicious for Colon just to out of the blue

want to talk to Rivera,

and then just start talking about a murder

that occurred four years ago.

So the story we came up with, the reason

for this reintroduction was that Rivera

when he committed the murder in 1987 had left

the witness alive,

and now this witness was starting to extort Ray's boss.

I was sitting with Stefanak probably 15 feet away

from where the meeting happened

in a glassed in room that they couldn't see from the outside.

I was recording the conversation

as it was transmitted to me,

and we have two recordings on Ray just to make sure that

we figure this was our only chance we're going to get this on tape.

- Yeah. - That's one of the things you're gonna have to do.

You should've done the fucker when he got nervous so,

[Scott] Finally, Louie Rivera, gave us exactly what we needed to hear.

[Rivera] That person has got a smile, you treat it like a joke or something.

[Ray] He's got a smile?

Yeah.

Let me think about it.

Five seconds.

crazy for change.

Come on, you know that.

How you doin'... Steve Banerjee.

[Ray] Like this is real.

[indistinct conversation]

Rivera points to the exact place where DeNoia was shot.

[children chattering on recording]

And that was the moment that we needed to get on tape

and we got it.

[Mike] When I went in to interview Mr. Lopez.

It was such an exciting feeling to be sitting down

knowing that no matter what happens in this room.

This is the guy who did the killing.

This person was gonna go to jail for the crime that he committed,

and the DeNoia family could start to have peace in their life.

[Scott] Now that we have this fantastic conversation on tape.

It does a lot for the New York

and the NYPD portion of the investigation,

but it doesn't really advance our investigation against

Steve Banerjee.

We still have to find out how we can get Banerjee

implicated in this conspiracy.

But we knew that Banerjee was going to be a tough fish to hook.

What we had at this point was Ray's version of the story.

So we're getting everything from Colon's perspective

and point of view,

but we wanted to kind of get a feeling for what Banerjee

was like to work for and we wanted to interview

anybody who may have had knowledge of what was going on.

[Bruce Nahin] The FBI came to the office and said they want to ask

some questions about Steve Banerjee.

They asked me if I knew a Ray Colon.

And I told them he was just a guy would sit at the bar,

talk to the other happy hour crowd and be around at night.

I learned from the FBI that Steve was possibly involved

in the fire bombings, of these other clubs

that would feature male exotic dancers.

Steve wasn't real happy with competition.

So I started to wonder if it was a charade

on Steve's part to double our security.

Because if we were the only club that didn't get hit,

it would look suspicious.

And if that was true.

Steve was clearly not the person I thought he was.

[upbeat music playing]

[audience cheering]

♪ We're gonna give you The thrill of your life ♪

[Read] We were talking to the FBI.

I said, think about it, to kill somebody with cyanide.

That's a definite message.

We're the biggest threat to him right now

and we're taking money away from him.

It was a message, he wanted to send a message.

Don't mess with Chippendales, or Banerjee.

[Candace Mayeron] The FBI grilled me for two solid days.

The big thing that I wanted to get across to them was that

Banerjee was motivated by mad jealousy

that Nick was getting the credit for Chippendales.

[man on video] He is the founder, the creator,

He is Mr. Chippendale.

- Nick DeNoia. - [all cheering]

Jealousy that Nick was getting half of the door.

On tour for the first time.

He was jealous of Nick's ability to handle all the attention.

Let me ask you, ladies, would you like to see

these guys one more time?

[all cheering]

[Candace] He had every reason to kill me.

There were no other solutions in his mind.

The men of Chippendales.

The problem of course was, I didn't have hard evidence.

I had nothing that they could hang their hats on

and actually bring charges against Steve.

[Scott] So these interviews that we conducted.

We had a lot of circumstantial evidence,

but we didn't have the best evidence,

which would be an admission or a confession from Banerjee on tape,

that he was the one that directed Ray to carry out

these plans and these plots.

Banerjee will not talk to him on the phone.

So we just had Ray stage himself

across the street from Chippendales at a liquor store one morning

and just decide to confront Banerjee when he showed up

for work that day.

I'm parked down the street several blocks away,

watching Colon.

[camera shutter clicking]

Banerjee pulls in, in his Mercedes,

he gets out of the car.

Colon yells at him and motions for him to come over.

[Ray speaking]

[Scott] Colon told Banerjee that he needed money for a lawyer.

So Banerjee told Colon that he would deliver money

the next day, at this restaurant in West L.A.

And sure enough, I went to the restaurant,

retrieved the package, and in the package was...

[camera shutter clicking]

$14,000 cash.

So we're feeling good.

But when you look at it from 30,000 feet,

all we have is somebody paying somebody some money

for lawyers' fees.

That can be spun a number of different ways.

[David] My job in the major crime section

was always looking into what is going to happen

in a courtroom,

through the lens of evidence

that Scott and Andy yielded for us.

And it just wasn't enough

to be a predictively winnable case.

And if you're going to take a shot at Steve Banerjee,

take the best shot you possibly can.

[Scott] Colon called Banerjee and they arranged to meet

at this hotel in Santa Monica.

Colon drives himself to the meeting with Banerjee.

Stefanak and I go to a parking lot

that happens to be directly across from the entrance

of this hotel.

And we just conduct surveillance on the meeting,

as best we could.

The recording device that we hid in Ray's shorts

was only that, it's only a recording device,

it doesn't transmit the conversation.

So we can't hear what's going on.

[indistinct announcement]

[Scott] After about an hour.

Banerjee and Colon exit.

They go to the trunk of the Mercedes,

and I see Banerjee handing Colon a package.

After that, Banerjee hops in his Mercedes and takes off.

Ray hands the package to Stefanak and I

and we count the package, turned out it was $40,000 of cash.

Colon gives us a debrief.

And that's where we learn that there was no conversation.

There was just notes being scribbled back and forth

between the two of them, and that's how they communicated.

[RJ speaking indistinctly on radio]

Colon told us that Banerjee doesn't trust him.

He knew that Colon had been arrested,

and that there's a chance that Ray could be working with

the government or with the FBI specifically.

But Ray told us that Banerjee is so desperate

to find out exactly what law enforcement knows,

that he agrees that if Colon goes overseas,

he'll come meet him, he'll give him money,

and he'll talk all he wants.

Because in Banerjee's mind,

if he became a fugitive, there's no way

he could cooperate and work with the FBI.

[David] Andy and Scott visited me and said,

"We have an idea."

We want to take Ray Colon to Europe,

and being a fugitive in Europe.

As the bait to get Steve Banerjee to meet with him,

and hopefully incriminate himself.

And I looked at Scott and I looked at Andy...

and I said, "What?

You want to do what?"

[Scott] We knew that taking Colon to a foreign country

was a major risk.

Ray could either take off.

Or he could decide that he was being held against his will

and wanted to the claim asylum in this foreign country.

But as an agent, you have to develop relationships

with your cooperating witnesses, your informants,

your bad guys,

and I think one of the most important things as an agent

is you have to develop that trust.

And so I felt, and Stefanak felt it was worth the risk.

All we can do at this point was trust Ray.

[operatic music playing]

We decided that Italy would be the best place to go,

because we had a great working relationship

with the Italian police.

Immediately after arriving in Rome,

plan was to get Ray an apartment,

and then for us to wire that place up,

so he can lure Banerjee to this place

to have a conversation that we could record.

[telephone ringing]

[Steve] Yeah.

I was writing notes on the pad.

Tell him, tell me him you're pissed,

and, you know, be hostile with him.

[Steve] Don't make a big issue out of it.

[Ray on phone] Steve, come on, you're playing with me,

why can't you come to Italy?

[Steve] I have no visa.

[Ray] Huh?

When Banerjee told us that he couldn't come to Italy

without a visa.

It was just like, you know, let the air out of a balloon.

We had dropped the ball there because we didn't realize

that Banerjee was not a US citizen.

[Scott] As FBI agents, we just can't travel from country to country willy nilly

and conduct operations.

We were this close to having this meeting

that we've been desiring for so long

and getting him on tape.

- [phone clicks] - [line disconnects]

[Ray speaking]

[David] I received a telephone call from Scott saying,

we're not going to have a meeting in Rome, Italy.

Now, my heart sank, because I thought

we're so close to the finish line.

And I said, Steve Banerjee, not having the right passport.

I hadn't thought of that.

But Scott said, "Don't panic.

We're going to Zurich, and everything's going to be okay."

[church bell dinging]

We have 24 hours to get everything handled

in anticipation of Banerjee arriving the next day.

We secured three rooms in the city hotel in Zurich.

Myself and a tech agent.

We had rooms on either side of Colon.

The Swiss wired up Colon's hotel room,

by putting microphones in the baseboard of his room.

We were all going to be stationed in my room,

where the recording equipment was with headphones

so we could listen to the conversation.

[man on recording] Testing, testing, testing.

[Scott] And we tested out the recording quality

of that hotel room and it was like a recording studio.

Once that's accomplished.

We wait for Banerjee to arrive.

Swiss police followed Banerjee from the moment he arrived

in the airport.

[camera shutter clicks]

Banerjee and Colon had a prearranged telephone call

at another hotel in Zurich.

And when Banerjee arrived,

Colon made the call to this hotel.

[dial tone beeps]

[line ringing]

No, I can't come in. I'm on the right,

Hey.

Banerjee didn't want to come back to Colon's hotel room.

And here we go again.

[Steve] Okay, do what you gotta do.

Banerjee was being Banerjee, he was being cagey again

and he wanted, he wanted to have the meeting on his terms.

[Ray] Well, where are we... All right, where are you?

- I don't even know where you're at. - [Steve] I'm at Renaissance

I'm waiting at a coffee shop. I'm sitting right there...

[Ray] All right, that's fine.

[Scott] So now we have to figure out how are we going to get Colon over there

with his jacket on which had a transmitter in the jacket,

so we could listen to the conversation.

[Ray] All right.

- Got it. - [phone clicks]

But the plan for Colon was somehow, some way,

get him back to that hotel room,

because that's where we're going to get the best recording quality.

Colon hops in the cab, heads over to this hotel.

Colon at this point is wearing a bit of a disguise,

he's got a fake mustache on, and he's wearing some kind of

beret and he's wearing a heavy winter coat.

He meets Banerjee in the lobby of the hotel,

and they walk into a little coffee shop,

off the side of the lobby.

This is our big moment.

He's got the device on him that we've been able to record the conversation,

he sits down next to Banerjee.

I'm in the car with the Swiss police

trying to listen to the conversation.

And we can't hear anything.

We radio to the surveillance detective inside the lobby,

and we said, "Why can't we hear anything?"

And he relays back to us, Colon took his jacket off

and placed it on the bench next to him.

I'm thinking this is a recurring nightmare.

And here we are, we get right to the point where we're going

to get the conversation.

And then something goes wrong.

Colon screws up, so we gotta come up with another plan.

Swiss police sent an undercover officer

to talk to the maitre d' of the coffee shop,

and he told them that you have to close the place down.

No ifs, ands, or buts, that will force them

to a different area of the hotel,

and hopefully Colon will put his jacket on,

then we get our recording.

[indistinct conversation on recording]

But from the cafe.

They went to the bar area, and the bar area was

as if going from the frying pan into the fire.

- [background music playing on recording] - [indistinct conversation]

Now we have all this ambient noise

of a crowded bar with glasses and silverware clinking

and conversations from patrons next to him

and it was just another horrible experience.

[patrons speaking indistinctly]

We've done everything we can to get to this point,

this is our second country, we've jumped to hoop

after hoop after hoop, and we're failing.

[indistinct conversation on recording]

They sat there in the bar for a couple of hours

and Colon drank beer after beer after beer

and he finally got the courage out to tell Banerjee,

"Hey, let's go back to the hotel room, so we could talk."

Finally, Banerjee agreed to do that.

So we raced back to the city hotel where our rooms are.

We got in there a few minutes before Banerjee

and the surveillance unit tell us Banerjee's arrived

at the hotel and he's walking into the hotel.

[knocking at door on recording]

You hear the knock on the door

and Colon lets Banerjee into the room.

[Ray] Welcome to my abode.

Now I'm thinking, "Okay, this is showtime,

this is the moment we've been waiting for

for over a year now."

[Steve] Too much light.

- [Ray] You gotta be kidding. - It'll be all right.

[Scott] I'm writing furiously every word that they're saying

and I'm trying to make sure just in the wildest event

that this recording doesn't work,

I want to make sure I am able to record everything that I hear.

[Steve] I don't want people to see me.

[Ray] Steve.

[indistinct conversation]

[Ray] You panic, you panic over shit.

This is...

This is how solid these people build this shit.

[knocking on recording]

Feel that? That's fucking cement, bro.

[Scott] Colon was trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible.

But Banerjee still had that fear that Colon

was cooperating with the FBI.

[Steve] They might need to talk to the NPA

and they come take your picture.

[Ray] Are you gonna start that again?

[knocking at door on recording]

[room service] Hello?

[Ray] Yeah.

- Hi... - Yeah, let me just sign...

Banerjee would run into the bathroom and hide

when room service would knock on the door.

- [Ray] Thank you very much. - [room service] Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

[Steve] He didn't see...

I mean, you know you jump. I mean, Jesus Christ.

[Steve] ...the FBI can't survive.

[Ray] Steve, FBI can't leave the country.

[Steve] Why not?

[Ray] CIA can leave the country, FBI cannot leave the country.

- On an investigation... - Domestic.

[Steve] Eventually, he got comfortable enough with Colon

and Banerjee is able to ask the questions

that he wanted to ask Ray.

[Steve] Do you think your lawyer was told that you wanted,

also to be involved in other thing?

- [Ray] The D? - [Steve] Yeah.

[Steve] Nah, I'm sure that...

[Ray] Do you think that they believe that you're involved?

I'm being honest.

[Steve] Oh, sure, they know it.

[Scott] The questions that Banerjee asked 'em

were the golden nuggets that we needed for him

to incriminate himself.

[Ray] Then why haven't you been arrested?

[Steve] Because they don't have strong evidence yet.

They don't have the proof that I gave you the money.

They don't have a proof I bought the gun.

They don't have the proof I gave you his address.

They don't have proof of all that stuff.

That's the reason I don't wanna talk to, I don't talk to nobody,

I never say anything, so they don't have me on tape.

Because whatever you say will come back to haunt you.

[Ray] Makes sense, makes sense.

[Scott] We had it all on tape.

We had all the crimes that Colon had told us about.

And they all came out of Banerjee's mouth

and we had exactly what we needed, and more.

[Steve] They'll never catch you.

[Ray] Being so far,

[indistinct conversation]

At that point, the only thing that could go through my mind is,

"We got him, we finally got him."

[reporter] ...owner Steve Banerjee is behind bars tonight

and accused of conspiring to commit murder.

Chippendales was a popular...

[Scott] Banerjee was charged under the RICO law.

[reporter 2] The plans allegedly involved murder by cyanide poisoning.

By his eliminating of the competition through arson

and murder for hire plots and murder.

He's able to propel his business further.

The FBI foiled the alleged plot.

[Scott] And Chippendales in essence was a corrupt organization

that had been influenced by this racketeering activity

of arson and murder and murder for hire.

[male reporter] In 1987, Banerjee paid two assassins to travel

from Los Angeles to New York,

and under his direction the assassins kill Banerjee's ex business partner

Nick DeNoia.

[Scott] Who could ever dream of something like that,

male exotic dancers, but behind it all

is this one megalomaniac, who's a sociopath,

trying to kill or destroy anything that gets in his way.

[reporter 2] The show's owner Steve Banerjee allegedly tried to hire...

[reporter 3] $25,000 each for the death of each victim.

[Roger Menache] Hearing about all these accusations and charges...

US Attorney claimed Banerjee had met with someone

- in Zurich, Switzerland. - It wasn't easy for me

- to accept. - Today a judge denied bail.

I thought he was a great person, a great boss.

But then I realized, maybe this is not the same man.

I once knew before.

The person I met years ago, decades ago,

had changed into this evil man,

and he had a lot of questions to answer.

[Bruce] I got word that Steve wanted to see me.

I thought I was going there as an old friend.

But when I walked in.

There was anger.

Steve was yelling and screaming at me.

I start to wonder what brought the man from this generous,

loving, personable guy I met in '75, '76

to the man I was standing across

at Metropolitan Detention Center.

I don't know if it was drugs, I don't know if it was money.

I don't know if he was always that way.

All I can visualize is he did a good job

of concealing who he was from me for a long time.

[Candace] When Banerjee was finally arrested and convicted.

This was our moment of jubilation.

It had been seven years.

We knew all those seven years and finally

the world caught up to us.

I think all of us felt...

Nick...

must somehow know of this

and finally find peace.

Finally find some peace.

[Read] I had sunk pretty low.

Banerjee had put us out of business.

Adonis couldn't pay me my last checks.

I had lost everything.

It affected my marriage, my relationship with my son's mom.

I wasn't the guy I used to be.

But, you know, what didn't kill me

made me stronger.

And, you know, and I'm thankful that

I'm still here.

[reporter] ...sentenced for the murder of his business partner Nick DeNoia

[reporter 2] Chippendales owner Somen Banerjee

committed suicide in his jail cell.

♪ I pictured a rainbow ♪

[woman] He got to choose his time and Nick didn't get to choose his time.

♪ You held it in your hands ♪

[female reporter] DeNoia's friends are angry Banerjee killed himself

before he could be sentenced.

[Roger] Steve Banerjee was gone.

The creator of world famous Chippendales gone.

And I realized it was probably the end of Chippendales

when that happened.

♪ You saw the whole Of the moon ♪

[Bruce] Magique in New York was sold by the landlord,

torn down and became a parking lot,

and ultimately I understand is a Bed Bath & Beyond now.

Chippendales Los Angeles is now an adult daycare center.

♪ Too high ♪

♪ Too far Too soon ♪

Over time, all the other clubs dissolved,

the relationships ended,

and we're left with the last vestige of the empire

which is in Las Vegas.

♪ I was dumbfounded by truth ♪

[Bruce] But the concept of Chippendales was culture changing

to a point where you mention it, today everyone knows what it is.

So, come on, ladies, let down your hair, take off your shoes.

Loosen up!

[Bruce] And that's the legacy of Chippendales.

♪ You saw... ♪

- Get it down. - [all cheering]

[Candace] We built an environment for women

to let it all hang out.

Yell and scream.

And show your appreciation for a good looking guy.

I'm very proud of that.

You know this guy, he commandos if you come to the ultimate Chippendale,

Michael Rapp.

[Michael] I continued on dancing until 2001.

And after doing every position that Chippendales had,

I decided this is the right time for me

to say goodbye, you know, to this job.

And so, after 20 years.

I hung up my G-string.

But, I had been this Chippendale Michael Rapp for so long,

that when I left it,

I had this loss.

I was, I was lost.

[female announcer] Michael.

[all cheering]

[Michael] That feeling that I was accepted.

I was wanted, I was needed.

I needed that to make me feel whole.

And it took me years to get over it,

to recreate myself,

and to find out who I truly am.

But it was the greatest experience...

[male announcer] Give it up!

that I could've possibly have taken,

it was the greatest ride that I've been on,

I would do it again, all the heartaches and hardship,

I would do it again.

♪ You saw the whole Of the moon ♪

♪ Did you see the whole Of the moon ♪

You ladies ready to go home?

You haven't had enough?

You want more, huh?